21 Years Later, Man Exonerated of Poisoning Kids

On Oct. 25, 1967, James Joseph Richardson and his wife, Annie Mae, left their home in Arcadia, Florida, for their jobs as fruit pickers in an orange grove. Before they left, Annie Mae told their next-door neighbor and some-time baby sitter, Betsy Reese, to serve their seven children lunch when they came home from school.

After eating the lunch of rice and beans with hog jowl gravy, the children, six girls and one boy ages 2 to 11, went back to school and soon became ill. They foamed at the mouth and shook violently. The children were taken to a nearby hospital, but all but one died within hours. The seventh child died the next day.

Autopsies showed the deaths were caused by parathion, a powerful insecticide that was in the children's lunch.